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LIBRARY 

OK  Tin: 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

<  .  i  K  '  r  (  >  \  s 


*    55  (ftrzr^L 


^Accessions  No. 


la*s  No. 


With  the  Compliments  of 

W.  F.  POOLE. 


THE  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 


UNIVERSITY  CURRICULUM 


Phi  Beta  Kappa  Address 
NORTHWESTERN  UNIVERSITY  JUNE  13  1893 


WILLIAM  FREDERICK  ^POOLE  LL  D 
Librarian  of  the  Newberry  Library 


OF   THK 

TJKIVE. T 


Chicago  New  York  Toronto 
FLEMING  H  REVELL  COMPANY 

1894 


COPYRIGHT  1894 
By  W  F  POOLE 


Press  of 

Slason  Thompson  &  Co. 
Chicago 


flUKIVEI 


THE    UNIVERSITY    LIBRARY 

AND  THE 

UNIVERSITY    CURRICULUM 


MY  leading  purpose  in  the  preparation 
of  this  address  was  a  discussion  of 
the  relations  of  the  University  Library  to 
University  Education.  I  wished  to  show 
that  the  study  of  Bibliography  and  of  the 
scientific  methods  of  using  books  should 
have  an  assured  place  in  the  University 
Curriculum  ;  that  a  wise  and  professional 
bibliographer  should  be  a  member  of  the 
faculty  and  have  a  part  in  training  all  the 
students ;  that  the  Library  should  be  his 
class  room,  and  that  all  who  go  forth  into 
the  world  as  graduates  should  have  such 
an  intelligent  and  practical  knowledge  of 
books  as  will  aid  them  in  their  studies 


4  The  University  Library 

through  life,  and  the  use  of  books  be  to 
them  a  perpetual  delight  and  refreshment. 
Books  are  wiser  than  any  professor  and 
all  the  faculty ;  and  they  can  be  made  to 
give  up  much  of  their  wisdom  to  the  stu- 
dent who  knows  where  to  go  for  it,  and 
how  to  extract  it. 

I  do  not  mean  that  the  university  stu- 
dent should  learn  the  contents  of  the 
most  useful  books ;  but  I  do  mean  that 
he  should  know  of  their  existence,  what 
they  treat  of,  and  what  they  will  do  for 
him.  He  should  know  what  are  the  most 
important  general  reference  books  which 
will  answer  not  only  his  own  questions, 
but  the  multitude  of  inquiries  put  to  him 
by  less-favored  associates  who  regard  him 
as  an  educated  man.  If  a  question  arises 
as  to  the  existence,  authorship,  or  subject 
of  a  book,  an  educated  man  should  know 
the  catalogues  or  bibliographies  by  which 
he  can  readily  clear  up  the  doubt.  The 
words  Watt,  Larousse,  Graesse,  Querard, 


and  University  Curriculum  5 

Hoefer,  Kayser,  Hinrichs,  Meyer,  Hain 
and  Vapereau  should  not  be  unmeaning 
sounds  to  him.  He  should  know  the 
standard  writers  on  a  large  variety  of  sub- 
jects. He  should  be  familiar  with  the 
best  method  by  which  the  original  invest- 
igation of  any  topic  may  be  carried  on. 
When  he  has  found  it,  he  appreciates, 
perhaps  for  the  first  time,  what  books  are 
for,  and  how  to  use  them.  He  finds  him- 
self a  professional  literary  or  scientific 
worker,  and  that  books  are  the  tools  of 
his  profession.  It  is  one  of  the  most  de- 
lightful and  inspiring  incidents  in  a  stu- 
dent's experience  when  he  has  discovered 
a  key  to  the  treasury  of  knowledge,  a 
method  by  which  he  can  do  useful  and 
practical  work,  and  that  he  has  a  function 
in  life.  No  person  has  any  claim  to  be  a 
scholar  until  he  can  conduct  such  an  orig- 
inal investigation  with  ease  and  pleasure. 
This  facile  proficiency  does  not  come  by 
intuition,  nor  from  the  clouds.  Where 


6  The  University  Library 

else  is  it  to  be  taught,  if  not  in  the  college 
or  university?  With  it,  a  graduate  is  pre- 
pared to  grapple  with  his  professional 
studies,  to  succeed  in  editorial  work,  or  in 
any  literary  or  scientific  pursuit  for  which 
he  may  have  the  taste  and  qualification. 

It  is  a  well-known  fact,  and  one  regret- 
ted by  the  wisest  educators,  that  the  great 
majority  of  the  students  of  the  colleges 
and  universities  of  the  country  graduate 
with  very  little  knowledge  of  books  or  of 
their  uses.  How  the  evil  can  be  remedied, 
is  a  question  easier  to  ask  than  to  answer. 
Any  scheme  which  may  be  proposed 
meets  with  this  objection: — "  The  curric- 
"  ulum  is  full,  and  it  is  not  possible  to  in- 
"  crease  it."  This  objection  furnishes  me 
with  the  opportunity,  and  a  justification, 
if  one  be  needed,  for  a  discussion  of  the 
modern  university  curriculum. 

The  attentive  observer  of  higher  educa- 
tion has  seen,  within  the  past  two  decades, 
a  marked  improvement  in  college  and  uni- 


and  University  Curriculum  7 

versity  instruction,  and  in  the  direction  I 
have  already  indicated.  More  thought 
is  now  given  to  the  subject  by  ripe  schol- 
ars and  experienced  educators  than  ever 
before ;  and  yet  there  is  abroad  a  feeling 
of  unrest,  and  an  impression  that  our 
educational  system  is  passing  through  a 
transition  period  from  one  which  was  ex- 
ceedingly faulty  to  some  ideal  method  as 
yet  undeveloped  and  still  in  the  future. 

The  need  of  educated  men  was  never 
so  great  as  at  present ;  and  yet  this  is  an 
admitted  fact,  that,  while  the  number  of 
colleges  and  universities  is  increasing  and 
the  classes  of  the  older  institutions  are 
larger,  the  number  of  graduates,  when 
compared  with  the  increase  of  population 
and  wealth,  is  diminishing.  The  demand 
for  highly-trained  men  to  fill  the  positions 
which  the  recent  amazing  development  in 
the  sciences  and  practical  arts  has  created 
—in  chemical  and  electrical  laboratories, 
in  mining,  metallurgy,  engineering,  trans- 


8  The  University  Library 

portation,  and  general  business  —  is  not 
supplied.  Higher  qualifications  are  needed 
in  each  of  the  old  and  learned  professions. 
In  1840  the  proportion  of  undergraduates 
to  the  population  of  the  country  was  I  to 
1,549;  in  1860,  i  to  2,012;  in  1870,  I  to 
2,615,  and  in  1880,  I  to  3,000.  The  dis- 
parity is  doubtless  greater  now.  The  age 
at  which  students  enter  college  is  steadily 
increasing.  The  average  age  of  freshmen 
at  Harvard  on  admission  is  upwards  of  nine- 
teen years.  President  Eliot  views  this  fact 
with  solicitude  and  says  it  must  be  reduced. 
"At  the  beginning  of  this  century,"  he  re- 
marks, "  many  students  graduated  at  the 
"age  at  which  they  now  enter."  Suspect- 
ing the  tendency  to  be  older  than  this 
century,  I  made  an  examination  of  this 
point  with  reference  to  the  early  classes 
at  Harvard,  beginning  with  the  first  class 
of  1642.  In  the  classes  from  that  date  to 
1659, 1  selected  seventeen  men  best  known 
for  the  reputation  they  had  achieved  in 


and  University  Curriculum  9 

life,  and,  looking  up  their  ages,  I  found 
that  six  of  them  had  entered  college  at 
thirteen  years  of  age,  two  at  fourteen, 
six  at  fifteen  and  three  at  sixteen.  It  will 
be  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  the  scholastic 
requirements  at  Harvard  were  then  low. 
I  shall  later  state  what  those  requirements 
were,  and  will  now  only  remark  that  there 
was  probably  not  one  graduate  at  Har- 
vard, in  the  last  class  of  1893,  who  could 
have  passed  the  final  examinations  and 
taken  the  bachelor's  degree  in  the  class 
of  1642. 

The  most  successful  professional  and 
literary  men,  as  a  rule,  both  in  this  coun- 
try and  in  Europe,  were  the  men  who 
completed  their  college  studies  early  in 
life.  Colleges  are  now  competing  with 
each  other  in  raising  the  average  age  of 
candidates  for  admission  by  increasing 
the  technical  conditions  of  entering,— 
often  in  the  form  of  grammatical  puzzles 
and  philological  conundrums.  Business 


io  The  University  Library 

is  offering  larger  prizes  to  our  young  men 
than  professional  life.  Parents  are  un- 
willing that  their  sons  should  spend  from 
twelve  to  fifteen  years  of  their  mature  life 
in  a  preparatory  school,  in  college,  in  pro- 
fessional studies,  and  in  fighting  for  a 
lucrative  position  in  the  ranks  of  law, 
medicine  or  technical  science,  when  in  less 
time  and  with  less  labor  and  expense  they 
can  establish  themselves  in  some  profit- 
able business.  They  do  not  understand 
why  it  is  necessary  for  an  American  youth 
to  work  with  grammar  and  dictionary  from 
six  to  ten  years  in  learning  Latin  ;  and 
they  are  amazed  when  they  ascertain  that 
not  one  in  fifty  college  graduates  can 
speak  Latin,  or  understand  it  when  spoken; 
can  write  it  with  any  freedom  or  accuracy, 
or  read  with  any  pleasure  a  page  of  an 
unfamiliar  Latin  author  at  sight.  Is  it 
strange  that  so  many  college  graduates 
forget  their  Latin  and  Greek  as  soon  as 
possible  after  they  have  taken  a  diploma, 


and  University  Curriculum         1 1 

and  that  occasionally  we  hear  of  one  who 
has  the  courage  to  boast  that,  when  he 
opens  a  copy  of  Homer,  he  does  not  know 
the  Greek  alphabet  ?  The  Roman  boy,  on 
the  other  hand,  learned  from  the  lips  of 
his  mother,  or  of  an  untrained  nurse,  usu 
ally  a  slave,  to  speak  Latin  at  three  or 
four  years  of  age,  without  grammar,  dic- 
tionary or  drill.  It  was  not  the  Latin  of 
Cicero  or  Quintilian;  but  it  was  Latin, 
nevertheless,  and  better  Latin  than  Amer- 
ican college  graduates  speak.  It  was  the 
beginning  of  a  familiarity  with  the  Latin 
tongue  which  was  later  developed  into  an 
idiomatic  and  scholarly  style.  Has  the 
human  mind  deteriorated  in  vigor  during 
the  past  two  thousand  years  ?  John  Stuart 
Mill  learned  from  the  lips  of  his  father  to 
speak,  read  and  write  Greek  at  a  very 
early  age.  "  I  have  no  remembrance,"  he 
says  in  his  Autobiography,  "of  the  time 
"  when  I  began  to  learn  Greek.  I  have 
"  been  told  that  it  was  when  I  was  three 


12  The  University  Library 

"  years  old.  My  earliest  recollection  on 
"  the  subject  is  that  of  committing  to 
"  memory  what  my  father  termed  voca- 
"  bles,  being  lists  of  common  Greek  words, 
"  with  their  signification  in  English,  which 
"  he  wrote  out  for  me  on  cards.  Of  gram- 
"  mar,  until  some  years  later,  I  learned  no 
"  more  than  the  inflexions  of  the  nouns 
"and  verbs;  but,  after  a  course  of  voca- 
"  bles,  proceeded  at  once  to  translation. 
"  I  remember  going  through  ^Lsop's  Fa- 
"  bles,  the  first  Greek  book  which  I  read. 
"  I  read  in  1813  [he  was  then  seven  years 
"old]  the  first  six  dialogues  of  Plato/' 
He  gives  a  summary  of  "  such  other  Greek 
"prose  authors  as  I  remember  to  have 
"  read  up  to  the  time  I  was  eight  years 
"  old,  namely:  The  whole  of  Herodotus, 
"  Xenophon's  Cyropaedia,  the  Memora- 
"  bilia  of  Socrates,  some  of  the  Lives  of 
"  the  Philosophers  by  Diogenes  Laertius, 
"  and  part  of  Lucian  and  Isocrates."  The 
narrative  he  gives  of  his  education,  he 


and  University  Curriculum          13 

says,  "  may  be  useful  in  showing  how 
"  much  more  than  is  commonly  supposed 
"  may  be  taught,  and  well  taught,  in  those 
"  early  years  which,  in  the  common  modes 
"  of  what  is  called  instruction,  are  little 
"better  than  wasted."  Later  he  adds: 
"  The  result  of  the  experiment  shows  the 
"  ease  with  which  this  may  be  done,  and 
"  places  in  a  strong  light  the  wretched 
"  waste  of  so  many  precious  years  as  are 
"  spent  in  acquiring  a  modicum  of  Latin 
"  and  Greek  commonly  taught  to  school 
"boys, —  a  waste  which  has  led  so  many 
"  educational  reformers  to  entertain  the 
"  ill-judged  proposal  of  discarding  those 
"  languages  altogether  from  general  edu- 
"  cation." 

The  objectors  to  this  theory  will  doubt- 
less say:  "John  Stuart  Mill  could  do 
"  this ;  but  where  is  another  boy  who 
"could  do  it?"  On  this  point  Mr.  Mill 
remarks:  "If  I  had  been  by  nature  ex- 
"  tremely  quick  of  apprehension,  or  pos- 


14  The  University  Library 

"  sessed  a  very  retentive  memory,  or  were 
"  of  a  remarkably  active  and  energetic 
"  character,  the  trial  would  not  be  con- 
"  elusive;  but,  in  all  these  natural  gifts,  I 
"  am  rather  below  than  above  par.  What 
"  I  could  do  could  assuredly  be  done  by 
"  any  boy  or  girl  of  average  capacity  and 
"  healthy  physical  constitution.  To  the 
"  fact  that  through  the  early  training  be- 
"  stowed  on  me  by  my  father,  I  started, 
"  I  may  fairly  say,  with  the  advantage  of 
"a  quarter  of  a  century  over  my  contem- 
"  poraries." 

This  last  remark  applies  not  mainly  to 
his  knowledge  of  the  classical  and  modern 
languages,  but  to  his  studies  in  history, 
political  economy,  philosophy  and  social 
science,  and  to  his  enormous  reading  in 
general  English  and  French  literature. 

Mr.  Mill  probably  underrated  his  nat- 
ural gifts;  but  instances  of  children  acquir- 
ing languages  as  readily,  and  by  the  same 
natural  method  as  he  learned  Greek  and 


and  University  Curriculum          15 

Latin,  are  matters  of  common  observa- 
tion. In  the  crowded  foreign  districts  of 
Chicago  there  are  children  five  years  of 
age  who  have  never  been  to  school,  and  yet 
they  act  as  interpreters  for  their  parents 
in  four  or  five  languages.  The  only  con- 
dition a  child  needs  in  learning  a  language 
is  the  opportunity  to  hear  it  spoken,  and 
to  speak  it.  The  ear,  the  tongue  and  the* 
lips  are  the  natural  organs  for  learning 
language.  The  eye  has  only  a  subordi- 
nate function,  and  with  children  before 
they  can  read  it  has  no  function  of  any 
sort. 

In  our  modern  system  of  education,  the 
period  in  the  life  of  a  child  —  when  his         ^ 
instinct  for  language  is  so  alert,  his  ear  so    f\   ,  ' 
sensitive  to    sounds,  and  his  memory  of  r  K^ 
words  so  retentive — is  allowed  to  run  to 
waste.     The  educators  of  the  middle  ages, 
and  even  of  two  centuries  ago  in  our  own 
country,  did  not  make  this  mistake.    Latin 
then   the   language  of    scholars   the 


1 6  The   University  Library 

world  over.  Every  educated  man  could 
speak  and  write  Latin.  It  was  the  lan- 
guage in  which  great  works  of  science, 
philosophy  and  religion  were  written,  and 
all  lectures  in  the  universities  of  Europe 
were  delivered, —  a  practice  which  is  con- 
tinued in  some  of  the  universities  to  this 
day.  Scholars  taught  their  children  the 
classical  languages  as  they  did  the  mother 
tongue,  at  the  same  time  and  in  the  same 
way.  Teachers  drilled  their  pupils  orally 
in  the  use  of  the  language.  The  modern 
drudgery  of  grammar  and  dictionary  work 
was  unknown.  John  Stuart  Mill  says  that 
in  his  day  (early  in  this  century)  there 
was  no  Greek  and  English  dictionary,  and 
that  when  he  met  a  new  word  he  went  to 
his  father  for  its  meaning.  Drill  in  "  the 
subjunctive  of  the  essential  part"  was 
deferred  until  the  pupil  had  a  full  vocabu- 
lary, was  familiar  with  the  inflections  and 
with  the  Roman  plan  of  placing  words  in 
constructing  a  sentence.  Syntax  was  then 


and  University  Curriculum         17 

evolved  from  the  language  itself,  and  not 
taken  from  a  grammar.  The  grammars 
were  very  simple  and  wholly  unlike  the 
ponderous  and  perplexing  manuals  now 
put  into  the  hands  of  modern  students  to 
memorize.  They  had  in  them  little  more 
than  the  inflections  of  nouns,  pronouns, 
adjectives  and  verbs. 

The  Latin  grammar  used  almost  uni- 
versally for  twelve  centuries  was  called  a 
"Donatus",  the  name  of  its  author,  who 
was  born  at  Rome  in  the  fourth  century 
and  was  the  teacher  of  St.  Jerome.  It 
was  one  of  the  early  block-books,  the  pre- 
cursors of  the  invention  of  printing  made 
in  the  early  half  of  the  fifteenth  century; 
and  it  was  actually  the  first  book  which, 
in  1450,  came  from  the  press  of  John 
Gutenberg,  the  inventor  of  printing  with 
movable  type.  He  then  was  at  work  on 
his  great  folio  Bible,  finished  in  1455, 
which  is  generally  regarded  as  the  first- 
printed  book.  The  little  grammar  was 


1 8  The  University  Library 

too  small  a  matter  to  be  called  a  book. 
In  the  large  type  used  on  the  Bible  it 
made  thirty-four  pages,  and  in  type  of 
ordinary  size  only  nine  pages.  From  1450 
to  1500  more  than  fifty  editions  of  this 
grammar  were  printed  in  different  coun- 
tries of  Europe. 

The  next  popular  Latin  grammar  was 
"Corderius,"  named,  like  "  Donatus,"  from 
the  Latin  name  of  its  author,  who  was 
born  in  France  in  1479,  anc^  was  the 
teacher  of  John  Calvin.  Like  its  prede- 
cessor, it  was  a  very  simple  manual,  and 
would  not  give  any  school  boy  the  head- 
ache. More  than  a  thousand  editions  of 
"  Corderius  "  have  been  printed.  The  last 
I  have  noticed  was  issued  in  England  in 

1854. 

As  the  fashion  of  education  in  modern 
times  has  drifted  away  from  the  natural 
method  of  teaching  the  classical  lan- 
guages, grammars  have  been  increasing  in 
size  and  in  incomprehensibility  to  the 


and  University  Curriculum         19 

youthful  mind.  The  aim  of  instruction 
also  in  preparatory  schools  and  colleges 
has  wandered  from  the  old  purpose  of 
giving  pupils  a  practical  knowledge  of  the 
languages  and  literatures  of  ancient  Greece 
and  Rome,  and  has  taken  up  the  teaching 
of  grammatical  metaphysics  and  philo- 
logical subtilties  as  a  substitute  for  Greek 
and  Latin. 

Among  the  first  settlers  of  New  Eng- 
land were  many  educated  men.  They 
brought  with  them  a  classical  culture  then 
common  in  England,  but  which  now  has 
no  counterpart  there,  nor  in  this  country, 
among  men  of  their  class.  They  were 
the  men  who  founded  Harvard  College 
eight  years  after  they  landed,  and  laid  the 
foundation  of  the  American  Nation.  The 
freedom  with  which  these  men  used  the 
learned  languages,  and  made  quotations 
from  classical  authors,  seems  like  pedant- 
ry, unless  we  remember  that  they  thought 
in  and  spoke  those  languages,  and  that 


2O  The  University  Library 

classical  writers  were  then  as  well  under- 
stood by  them  as  any  authors  they  had. 
The  manner  in  which  they  acquired  such 
a  familiarity  with  the  ancient  tongues  has 
a  bearing  on  the  question  now  under  con- 
sideration. They  wrote  many  books  which 
have  come  down  to  us,  and  their  corre- 
spondence has  been  sacredly  preserved. 
Hence  we  know  much  of  their  domestic 
life  and  literary  habits.  Of  none  of  them 
do  we  know  more  than  of  the  Mather 
family,  who,  for  four  generations  and  for 
a  hundred  years,  had  no  rivals  in  New 
England  as  men  of  influence  and  intel- 
lectual power.  From  1643  to  1723,  eight 
members  of  the  family  were  graduates  of 
Harvard  College,  and  the  average  age  at 
which  they  entered  college  was  twelve 
years  and  ten  months.  Richard,  the  senior 
Mather,  arrived  in  Boston  in  1635,  and 
four  of  his  sons  were  graduated  at  Har- 
vard when  one  of  the  essential  requisi- 
tions for  entrance  was  the  speaking  of 


and  University  Curriculum         21 

Latin.  He  was  an  Oxford  student  and 
was  the  principal  of  a  public  school  in 
England  when  he  was  fifteen  years  of  age. 
His  two  elder  sons,  Samuel  and  Nathaniel, 
entered  Harvard  at  thirteen,  and  gradu- 
ating went  to  England,  where  they  settled 
and  were  eminent  ministers.  Eleazar,  the 
third  son,  entered  Harvard  at  fifteen,  and 
Increase,  the  youngest,  at  thirteen.  The 
latter  became  the  president  of  Harvard 
College.  We  know  the  method  by  which 
Increase  taught  his  own  children,  and  we 
may  presume  it  was  the  same  by  which 
his  father  had  taught  him.  He  had  three 
sons  graduate  at  Harvard  :  Cotton,  Nath- 
aniel and  Samuel.  Cotton  Mather  de- 
scribes the  method  by  which  he  and  his 
brothers  and  sisters  learned  Greek,  Latin 
and  Hebrew.  They  heard  these  languages 
spoken  in  the  family  from  their  earliest 
childhood.  In  his  book  entitled  "  Manu- 
ductio  ad  Ministerium;  Directions  for 
a  Candidate  of  the  Ministry,"  1726,  he 


22  The  University  Library 

says  that  Hebrew  words  were  among  the 
first  upon  his  lips,  and  that,  as  a  spoken 
language,  Hebrew  is  "  with  very  little  dififi- 
"  culty  attained  unto.  Even  our  little  dam- 
"sels  make  nothing  of  coming  at  this  un- 
"  common  ornament."  His  own  daughter, 
Katharine,  spoke  Hebrew  at  twelve  years 
of  age.  With  regard  to  Latin,  his  advice 
to  the  candidate  for  the  ministry  is,  that 
he^be  "  able  not  only  to  write,  but  to  speak 
it  with  fluency  as  well  as  purity."  "  In- 
"  deed,"  he  says,  "  I  cannot  but  wish  that  a 
"  knowledge  of  the  Syriac  may  come  in  as 
"  an  appendix  to  your  knowledge  of  the 
"  Hebrew ;  and  having  got  the  Hebrew 
"you  will  find  the  Syriac  easily  come-at- 
"  able."  He  at  that  time  wrote  in  seven 
languages. 

When  Cotton  Mather  entered  Harvard 
College,  at  the  age  of  eleven  years  and 
six  months,  he  spoke  Hebrew,  Greek  and 
Latin.  He  had  composed  many  Latin 
treatises,  had  read  Cicero,  Ovid,  Virgil 


and  University  Curriculum         23 

and  Terence ;  had  finished  the  Greek  New 
Testament,  and  had  read  portions  of  Ho- 
mer and  Isocrates.  His  brother  Nathan- 
iel, who,  when  he  entered  college  seven 
months  older  than  Cotton,  was  quite  as 
much  of  a  scholar.  Besides  the  usual 
Greek  and  Latin  classic  authors,  he  had 
read  through  the  Old  Testament  in  He- 
brew and  the  New  Testament  in  Greek, 
and  had  developed  a  taste  for  mathemat- 
ics and  astronomy.  When  he  graduated 
at  sixteen  years  of  age,  he  delivered  an  ora- 
tion in  Hebrew,  and  about  that  time  said 
that  he  was  so  familiar  with  Hebrew  as  a 
spoken  language  that  he  could  use  it  for 
any  purpose  required.  At  the  age  of  fif- 
teen he  published  the  "  Boston  Ephem- 
"  eris,"  or  Almanac,  for  1685,  having  made 
the  mathematical  calculations  himself, 
and  the  next  year  he  published  the  "  Eph- 
"  emeris  for  1686."  Another  brother,  Sam- 
uel, entered  Harvard  before  he  was  twelve 
years  old,  and  was  a  scholar  of  similar 
attainments. 


24  The  University  Library 

It  may  be  said  that  such  training  of 
children  leaves  them  no  time  to  do  or 
learn  anything  else.  With  the  Mather 
family,  as  with  John  Stuart  Mill,  the 
reverse  was  true.  It  gave  them  time  for 
everything  else.  The  learning  of  lan- 
guages which,  by  the  modern  methods, 
becomes  such  a  labor  and  weariness  later 
in  life,  and  is  so  imperfectly  done,  was 
accomplished  by  them  in  childhood  as  a 
play  and  recreation,  and  in  a  practical  and 
thorough  manner.  The  amount  of  read- 
ing and  writing  they  did  as  boys,  and  the 
study  they  gave  to  scholarly  subjects, 
were  simply  amazing.  Samuel  appeared 
in  print  as  an  editor  at  fourteen  years  of 
age ;  Nathaniel  was  an  author  and  mathe- 
matician at  fifteen,  and  Cotton  began  to 
write  books  and  to  preach  at  sixteen,  and 
was  ordained  a  settled  minister  at  nine- 
teen over  the  North  Church  in  Boston, 
where,  as  the  leading  preacher  in  New 
England,  he  remained  forty-six  years  and 


and  University  Curriculum         25 

until  his  death.  Nathaniel  died  at  nineteen 
years  of  age.  His  memoir  was  printed  in 
Boston  and  reprinted  in  London.  On  his 
grave-stone,  in  the  burying  ground  at  Sa- 
lem, is  this  inscription  :  "An  aged  person 
"who  had  seen  but  nineteen  winters  in 
"  this  world."  His  biographer,  having 
spoken  of  his  learning  and  the  enormous 
work  he  had  done,  says :  "  Besides  all 
"  this,  in  the  vast  field  of  theology,  both 
"  didactic  and  polemic,  it  is  hardly  credible 
"  how  little  of  it  his  travel  had  left  un- 
"  known.  Rabbinic  literature  he  had  like- 
"  wise  no  small  measure  of." 

The  mental  activity  of  this  family,  so 
far  as  I  know,  has  no  counterpart  in  our 
day.  More  than  six  hundred  of  their 
books  were  printed,  and  at  a  time  when 
there  were  no  publishers,  and  all  books 
were  issued  by  subscription.  This  fact 
shows  their  immense  contemporary  popu- 
larity. Their  books  are  now  eagerly  sought 
for  by  libraries  and  collectors,  in  Europe 


26  The  University  Library 

as  well  as  America,  and,  although  they 
are  dead  books,  in  the  sense  that  Greek 
and  Latin  are  dead  languages,  their  cost 
in  the  markets  of  the  world  exceeds  that 
of  the  writings  of  any  other  five  families 
which  have  ever  lived  in  America. 

What  is  the  explanation  of  this  record  ? 
That  they  were  men  of  unusual  natural 
abilities  cannot  be  questioned ;  but  in 
my  judgment,  the  explanation,  in  a  large 
measure,  is  found  in  the  fact  that  they 
were  educated  by  methods  of  teaching 
now  lost  sight  of,  and  in  the  early  years 
of  childhood  which  are  now  allowed  to 
run  to  waste.  If  our  boys  were  prepared 
for  college  by  the  old  and  natural  method, 
there  would  be  ample  time  and  room  for 
making  bibliography  a  feature  in  the  uni- 
versity curriculum. 

The  second  name  which  appears  on  the 
Harvard  Triennial  is  that  of  George  Down- 
ing. He  was  a  Salem  boy,  and  was  grad- 
uated in  the  first  class  of  1642,  at  the  age 


and  University  Curriculum         27 

of  seventeen.  The  next  year  he  was  a 
tutor  in  the  College,  and  at  the  age  of 
twenty  went  over  to  England  to  enlist  in 
the  parliamentary  army.  He  rose  rapidly, 
and  at  the  age  of  twenty-five  he  was  a 
confidential  member  of  Oliver  Cromwell's 
staff.  He  was  transferred  to  the  State 
department,  and  was  employed  in  secret 
negotiations  with  foreign  governments. 
On  one  of  these  missions  he  had  a  two 
hours'  conference  with  Cardinal  Mazarin, 
the  prime  minister  of  Louis  XIV.,  con- 
cerning the  persecution  of  the  Waldenses. 
He  was  successful  in  his  mission  and  had 
the  promise  that  the  persecutions  should 
cease.  The  conference  was  conducted  in 
Latin,  and  with  one  of  the  most  brilliant 
and  scholarly  men  of  that  period.  Where 
and  how  did  George  Downing,  later  Sir 
George,  learn  his  Latin  ?  It  was  certainly 
not  picked  up  in  the  army,  and  was  doubt- 
less the  same  that  he  brought  away  from 
Harvard  College.  The  qualifications  then 


28  The  University  Library 

required  for  admission  to  the  College,  and 
for  taking  the  first  degree,  will  show  what 
that  training  was.  The  curriculum  of  the 
College  in  1642  has  been  preserved.  No 
one  was  admitted  who  was  not  "  able  to 
"  understand  Cicero,  or  such  like  Latin 
"author,  extempore,  and  to  make  and 
"  speak  true  Latin,  in  verse  and  prose,  suo 
"  ut  ainnt  Marte"  The  candidate  for  the 
first,  or  bachelor's  degree,  was  required  to 
"  render  at  sight  the  Hebrew  Old  Testa- 
"  merit  and  Greek  New  Testament  into  the 
"  Latin  tongue,  .  .  .  and  to  resolve  them 
"  logically."  He  was  required,  also,  to  write 
a  thesis  in  one  of  the  ancient  languages  on 
some  scholarly  subject,  and  to  deliver  and 
defend  it  successfully  at  a  public  exercise 
attended  by  the  governor,  magistrates, 
ministers,  and  all  persons  of  quality  in  the 
Colony,  at  which  no  word  of  English  was 
spoken.  A  great  variety  of  subjects, 
other  than  those  pertaining  to  the  classical 
languages  were  studied  in  the  College  and 


and  University  Curriculum         29 

treated  in  theses.  The  small  amount  of 
Latin  instruction  which  appears  in  the 
curriculum  is  noticeable  ;  and  is  explained 
by  the  fact  that  Latin  had  been  thoroughly 
learned  as  a  written  and  spoken  language 
before  the  students  entered  College.  They 
were  also  required  to  speak  Latin  in  the 
class  room,  at  commons,  and  on  the  Col- 
lege grounds.  Hebrew,  Chaldee  and 
Syriac  were  taught  on  Thursdays;  and 
Fridays  were,  by  all  the  classes,  given  up 
to  rhetoric  and  English  composition.  The 
significance  of  the  work  on  Fridays  will 
later  appear. 

There  are  two  classes  of  persons  who 
will  naturally  oppose  a  return  to  the 
natural  methods  of  learning  the  classical 
languages ;  (i),  the  teachers  in  preparatory 
schools  who  cannot  speak  the  languages 
they  teach,  and  who  say  these  languages 
are  not  to  be  spoken  because  they  are 
dead  languages.  The  purpose  of  teach- 
ing them,  they  further  say,  is  to  discipline 


3O  The  University  Library 

the  minds  of  the  pupils,  to  strenghten 
their  memories,  to  cultivate  their  discrim- 
ination and  critical  faculties,  and  to  train 
them  in  grammar  and  general  philology, 
in  order  that  they  may  the  better  under- 
stand English  and  acquire  facility  in  its 
use.  They  have  not  time,  they  assert,  to 
give  their  pupils  a  familiarity  with  Greek 
and  Roman  literature.  The  second  class 
of  opponents,  usually  belated  college 
graduates,  would  banish  Greek  and  Latin, 
as  well  as  the  higher  mathematics,  from 
the  College  curriculum,  and  supply  their 
places  with  modern  languages  and  more 
of  the  natural  sciences.  Mr.  Charles 
Francis  Adams,  ten  years  ago,  expressed 
this  popular  hostility  to  classical  studies 
in  his  Phi  Beta  Kappa  address  at  Cam- 
bridge, which  he  entitled  "A  College 
Fetich. "  It  was  a  special  attack  on 
Greek;  but  was  equally  applicable  to 
Latin.  "How,"  he  said,  "  did  Harvard 
"  College  prepare  me  and  my  ninety-two 


and  University  Curriculum         31 

"classmates  for  our  work  in  life  ?  The  poor 
"  old  College  prepared  us  to  play  our  parts 
"  in  the  world  by  compelling  us  to  acquire 
"a  superficial  knowledge  of  two  dead 
"  languages."  He  confessed  that,  having 
devoted  five  years  to  the  study  of  Greek, 
he,  twenty-seven  years  after  graduation, 
when  he  opened  his  Homer,  could  not 
read  the  Greek  characters.  The  address 
was  received  with  much  popular  favor; 
for  it  appealed  to  the  experience  of  a 
multitude  of  graduates  who,  like  himself, 
had  forgotten  Greek  and  Latin  and  who 
hoped  and  expected  that  they  would  soon 
disappear  from  the  College  curriculum. 
The  result,  however,  of  the  lively  discus- 
sion which  the  address  brought  on,  has 
pointed  in  the  opposite  direction.  A 
reaction  soon  took  place,  and  the  classics 
are  now  more  appreciated  and  firmly 
established  at  Harvard  than  at  any  other 
period  in  modern  times.  The  singular 
feature  in  this  reactionary  movement 


32  The  University  Library 

was,  that  the  conservative  element  was 
not  the  faculty  nor  corporation,  but  was 
the  students  themselves  who  seemed  to 
have  an  instinctive  impression  that  the 
knowledge  of  the  ancient  classics  lies  at 
the  basis  of  a  liberal  education. 

This  unrest  at  Cambridge  concerning 
the  classics  and  higher  mathematics,  of 
which  Mr.  Adams's  address  was  the  latest 
outcropping,  has  existed  for  more  than 
seventy  years.  In  1825  the  Corporation 
yielded  to  it  and  made  a  rule  that  stu- 
dents could  pursue  any  study  —  as  much 
or  little  of  it  as  they  chose  —  but  could 
take  no  degree  without  completing  the 
full  curriculum.  Students  declined  to 
take  that  sort  of  an  education,  and  the 
scheme  was  a  failure. 

In  1838  the  discussion  revived  against 
the  mathematics;  and  it  was  provided  that 
they  should  be  made  an  optional  at  the 
end  of  freshman  year.  The  professor  of 
mathematics  regretted  the  change,  for  he 


and  University  Curriculum         33 

could  think  of  only  one  student  who  was 
likely  to  continue  the  study  through  the 
course.  When  the  change  was  made, 
only  seven,  out  of  a  class  of  fifty-four, 
dropped  mathematics  at  the  end  of  fresh- 
man year;  and  eleven  took  the  higher 
four-years'  course,  which  left  the  study  in 
a  higher  position  than  before  the  change 
was  made. 

In  1841,  the  "  modernists"  —as  Mr. 
Adams  termed  himself  and  his  alleged 
reformers — renewed  their  attack  on  the 
study  of  the  classical  languages,  and  the 
corporation  again  yielded,  by  making 
them  optional  at  the  end  of  freshman 
year.  President  Quincy  in  his  report  on 
the  subject,  said:  "A  desire  to  open  the 
"  University  to  a  larger  class  of  persons 
"  has  long  been  the  wish  of  the  friends  of 
"  the  institution.  The  amount  of  Greek 
"  and  Latin  exacted  as  a  condition  for  a 
"  degree  prevents  many  parents  from  send- 
"  ing  their  sons  to  the  College,  because 


34  The  University  Library 

"  they  regard  such  studies  a  waste  of  time 
"  and  labor."  The  result  of  the  experiment 
was  the  same  as  the  preceding  one.  The 
real  scholars  pursued  their  classical  stu- 
dies as  optionals;  and  the  stupid  and  lazy 
students  took  something  which  was  easier. 
The  old  idea,  therefore,  of  what  a  liberal 
education  means,  has  for  the  last  half  cen- 
tury, and  has  to-day — notwithstanding  the 
poor  methods  of  instruction — a  stronger 
hold  upon  the  students  than  it  has  upon 
the  faculties  and  corporations  of  our  col- 
leges. 

Although  the  modern  method  of  teach- 
ing Greek  and  Latin  fails  in  its  most  im- 
portant feature  of  giving  the  pupil  a  prac- 
tical familiarity  with  these  languages  and 
knowledge  of  their  literatures,  the  drill  in 
philological  gymnastics  and  grammatical 
pyrotechnics  is  an  intellectual  exercise 
in  some  respects  beneficial  to  students. 
It  does  not,  however,  inspire  in  them  the 
love  of  the  classic  languages  and  litera- 


and  University  Curriculum         35 

tures  which  they  may  carry  into  active 
life  and  be  to  them  a  perpetual  diversion 
and  recreation.  Any  system  of  instruc- 
tion is  faulty  which  leaves  out  of  view  the 
making  of  enthusiastic,  genuine  scholars 
who  will  educate  themselves  after  they 
leave  college ;  and,  while  they  live,  will 
never  cease  to  be  students.  It  may  be 
said  that  very  few  of  the  whole  number 
of  college  graduates,  ever  become,  or  ex- 
pect to  become,  scholars.  So  much  the 
worse  for  their  instructors.  If  the  pupils 
were  properly  taught  and  inspired,  they 
would  become  scholars. 

"  Formerly/'  said  Prof.  Bowen  of  Cam- 
bridge, "  we  studied  grammar  in  order  to 
"  read  the  classics ;  now-a-days  the  classics 
"are  studied  as  a  means  of  learning  gram- 
"  mar.  Surely,  a  more  effective  means 
"  could  not  have  been  invented  of  render- 
"  ing  the  pupil  insensible  to  the  beauties  of 
"  the  ancient  poets,  orators,  and  historians, 
"  —  of  inspiring  disgust  alike  with  Homer 


36  The  University  Library 

"  and  Virgil,  Xenophon  and  Tacitus,  by 
"  making  their  words  mere  pegs  on  which 
"to  hang  long  disquisitions  on  the  latest 
"refinements  of  philology." 

President  Porter,  of  Yale,  wrote  fifteen 
years  ago  as  follows :  "  It  must  not  be 
"  denied  that  the  confidence  of  many  of 
"  our  best  students  in  the  value  of  classical 
"  studies,  as  pursued  in  our  colleges, 
"  has  of  late,  been  seriously  impaired.  The 
"  protraction  of  the  school  method,  the 
"  imposition  of  difficult  authors,  the  con- 
"  finement  of  the  attention  for  many 
"  years  to  refined  grammatical  subtleties, 
"  and  the  failure  to  encourage  the  reading 
"  of  easy  authors  in  large  quantities,  are  in 
"  part  the  explanation^  of  this  decay  of 
"  enthusiasm  for  classical  study  as  a  liter- 
"ary  discipline.  We  desire  to  see  the 
"  literary  advantages  of  a  classical  course 
"  reinforced  by  an  inspiring  love  of  the 
"  best  classical  authors,  and  an  enthu- 
"  siastic  desire  to  read  them  fluently.  Let 


and  University  Curriculum         37 

"  the  classics  be  so  studied  that  they  shall 
"  be  loved  and  admired  as  literature,  and 
"they  will  need  no  argument  for  their 
"vindication/' 

Prof.  Gildersleeve,  of  Johns  Hopkins 
University,  regarded  as  one  of  the  best 
classical  scholars  in  the  country,  says : 
"  Latin  and  Greek  are  to  be  studied  pri- 
"  marily  for  the  knowledge  of  the  life  of 
"  the  Roman  and  Greek  people  as  mani- 
"  fested  in  language  and  literature;  and 
"  not  because  Latin  and  Greek  are  con- 
"  venient  vehicles  for  the  communication 
"  of  a  certain  amount  of  linguistic  phi- 
"  losophy  or  comparative  grammar.  Such 
"  matters  are  entirely  out  of  place  in  the 
"  early  stages  of  study.  The  beginner 
"  has  to  do  with  results,  not  processes.  .  .  . 
"  It  is  a  capital  mistake  to  introduce  a 
"  student  into  the  maze  of  hypotheses  in 
"which  the  formation  of  a  language  is 
"  involved,  before  he  has  any  practical 
"acquaintance  with  the  language  itself, 


38  The  University  Library 

"  before  he  has  any  insight  into  the  liter- 
ature for  the  sake  of  which  chiefly  the 
"  language  is  to  be  learned.  .  .  .  The 
"  less  the  mastery  of  the  subject  on  the 
"  part  of  the  teacher,  the  greater  seems  to 
"  be  the  desire  to  make  the  treatment 
"  'scientific',  and  so, — in  the  plastic  age  of 
"  study,  the  golden  opportunity  of  appro- 
"  priating  the  peculiar  value  of  the  classic 
"  languages,  is  thrown  away." 

It  is  apparent  that  the  cause  of  the 
whole  deficiency  in  modern  classical 
education  arises  from  the  fact  that  the 
teachers  in  preparatory  schools  and  col- 
leges have  so  little  practical  knowledge  of 
Greek  and  Latin  as  languages.  Language 
is  "  human  speech,  the  expression  of 
"  ideas  by  the  voice."  It  is  not  grammar, 
rules  of  syntax,  nor  philology — it  is  some- 
thing spoken.  The  teachers  who  fit  our 
boys  for  the  Universities  are  unable  to 
speak  these  languages,  or,  with  any  facil- 
ity or  accuracy,  give  expression  to  their 


and  University  Curricuhim          39 

thoughts  in  writing ;  and  hence  they  are 
incompetent  to  teach  Greek  and  Latin. 
The  remedy  is  to  find  teachers  who  know 
the  ancient  languages  as  modern  teachers 
know  French  and  German.  If  they  are 
not  to  be  found,  they  must  be  educated 
as  Melanchthon  and  Mill  were  educated. 
What  would  be  thought  of  a  German 
teacher  who  should  have  pupils  under  his 
care  for  several  years,  and  then  they 
could  not  speak  or  write  German,  nor 
understand  it  when  spoken  ?  It  would  be 
a  poor  compliment  to  him  to  say  that  his 
pupils  were  grounded  in  German  gram- 
mar and  well  up  in  general  philology. 

While  it  is  now  generally  admitted  that 
the  modern  and  protracted  method  of 
teaching  in  academies  and  preparatory 
schools  is  practically  a  failure,  so  far  as 
giving  the  pupils  a  knowledge  of  Latin 
and  Greek  literatures  is  concerned,  it  is 
claimed  that  the  grammatical  drill  is  useful 
in  training  pupils  to  understand  the  struct- 


40  The  University  Library 

ure  and  use  of  the  English  language,  or, 
in  other  words,  to  make  them  good  writ- 
ers. On  the  other  hand,  do  the  facts 
show  that  this  has  been  the  result  ?  An 
interesting  expose  of  the  fallacy  of  the 
theory  recently  appeared  in  a  "  Report  to 
"the  Board  of  Overseers  of  Harvard  Col- 
"  lege  by  a  Committee  on  English  Com- 
" position  and  Rhetoric;"  and  also  in  ar- 
ticles on  the  same  subject  in  the  Harvard 
Graduates  Magazine.  An  article  in  the  Jan- 
uary (1893)  issue  of  the  latter,  is  entitled 
"  Education  in  the  Preparatory  Schools." 
The  writers  were  Mr.  Charles  Francis 
Adams,  the  chairman  of  the  Committee 
which  reported  to  the  Overseers,  and  Wil- 
liam W.  Goodwin,  the  senior  professor  of 
Greek.  The  investigation  of  the  ques- 
tion :  "  How  much  do  college  freshmen 
"  know  of  the  English  language  ?  "  was  be- 
gun by  the  Boston  Herald  in  1890,  by 
offering  college  scholarships  for  the  best 
two  compositions  written  under  condi- 


and  University  Citrriculum         41 

tions  similar  to  those  of  the  Harvard 
entrance  examinations.  There  were  two 
hundred  and  twenty  competitors,  all  of 
whom  held  certificates  that  they  were  to 
take  examinations  that  summer  for  en- 
trance to  the  College.  No  one  could  com- 
pete who  was  not  a  resident  of  Massa- 
chusetts, or  of  two  other  New  England 
States.  The  contest  showed  that  the 
young  men,  whose  average  age  was  more 
than  nineteeen,  had  a  colossal  incapacity 
for  writing  English.  Only  twenty-three 
of  the  papers  were  found  worth  sending 
to  the  Committee  which  was  to  make  the 
award  ;  and  they  were  sternly  condemned 
by  the  judges.  These  startling  facts 
waked  up  the  Overseers,  and  hence  their 
examination  and  report  which  was  based 
on  about  five  hundred  compositions 
written  by  students  in  the  freshman 
class,  and  on  the  examination  papers  con- 
taining translations  into  English  from 
advanced  Latin  and  Greek,  made  by  can- 


42  The  University  Library 

didates  who  offered  themselves  for  admis- 
sion to  the  College  in  June  1892.  The 
Committee  print  selections  from  these 
papers  and  facsimiles  of  the  handwriting, 
with  the  blots,  bad  spelling,  erasures, 
and  interlineations.  They  make  a  droll 
exhibit.  The  assistance  of  an  educated 
lady  was  called  in  to  aid  the  Committee 
in  the  dreary  examination,  who  later  com- 
plained that  she  had  suffered  lasting  intel- 
lectual deterioration  in  consequence  of 
her  well-meant  efforts.  In  the  case  of 
one  school,  represented  by  an  unusual 
number  of  candidates,  she  had,  in  conse- 
quence of  mental  stupefaction,  been  un- 
able to  distinguish  one  paper  from  an- 
other, except  as  her  attention  was  drawn 
to  the  original  orthography  of  these 
papers,  and  especially  to  that  of  one 
young  man  who  spelt  Jupiter  with  two 
ps.  Only  one  paper  she  found  which 
seemed  in  every  respect  —  penmanship, 
expression,  and  correctness  of  rendering  — 


and  University  Curriculum         43 

up   to  the  level  which   might   well   have 
been  insisted  upon  for  all. 

Prof.  Goodwin  comments  on  the  report 
as  follows:  "  The  report  of  the  Over- 
"  seers'  Committee  on  English  contains 
"  nothing  that  is  new  to  those  who  have 
"  long  known  the  low  standard  in  English 
Composition  which  the  College  feels  com- 
"  pelled  to  accept  for  admission.  Indeed, 
"  to  many  of  those  best  acquainted  with 
"  this  standard,  the  papers  now  published 
"  by  the  Committeee  seem  unexpectedly 
"good.  .  .  .  The  present  evidence,  how- 
"  ever,  establishes  one  important  point  be- 
"  yond  question  :  there  is  no  conceivable 
"justification  for  using  the  revenues  of 
"  Harvard  College,  or  the  time  and 
"  strength  of  her  instructors,  in  the  vain 
"attempt  to  enlighten  the  Egyptian 
"  darkness  in  which  no  small  portion  of 
"  our  undergraduates  are  sitting.  The 
"  college  must  do  something  to  redeem 
"  herself  from  disgrace,  and  to  put  the 


UHIVE 


44  The  University  Library 

"  disgrace  where  it  belongs;  but  she  must 
"no  longer  spend  time,  strength,  and 
"  money  on  the  hopeless  task  which  she 
"  has  recently  undertaken.  Many  good 
"  people  who  read  the  Committee's  report 
"  will  believe  that  our  mother  tongue  is 
"  singled  out  for  neglect  and  contempt  by 
"the  preparatory  schools.  The  low  stand- 
"ard  in  English  is  only  one  of  the  many 
"  results  of  the  deplorable  condition  of 
"our  lower  education.  .  .  .  It  is  now  a 
"  familiar  truth  to  most  of  us  that  stud- 
"  ents  come  to  Harvard  College  at  nine- 
"  teen,  in  most  cases  badly  prepared  to 
"pass  an  examination  which  boys  of  six- 
"  teen  and  seventeen  would  find  easy  work 
"  in  England,  Germany,  France  and 
"Switzerland.  Most  of  these  young  men 
"have  spent  the  preceding  three,  four  or 
"  five  years  in  doing  boy's  work  which 
"  they  should  have  finished  before  they 
"were  sixteen." 

Professor     Goodwin     further     says : 


and  University  Curriculum         45 

"  Though  these  extracts  are  given  to 
"  show  the  bad  English,  they  are  equally 
"  astounding  for  the  ignorance  of  Latin 
"  and  Greek  which  they  disclose.  -  It  will 
"  hardly  be  believed  that  Nos.  6  and  8 
"  [which  he  prints  in  parallel  columns] 
"  profess  to  be  translations  of  the  same 
"  passage  in  the  Iliad.  .  .  .  Although 
"  no  thorough  reform  can  be  expected 
"  until  more  time  is  gained  for  all  the  pre- 
"  paratory  studies,  .  .  .  the  college  still 
"  has  a  plain  duty  to  perform  without 
"  delay." 

Erasmus,  Luther,  Melanchthon,  Mon- 
taigne, the  Mathers,  and  Mill,  gained  the 
time  for  all  the  preparatory  studies  by 
learning  the  classical  languages  in  early 
childhood. 

The  boys,  whose  accomplishments  in 
English  composition  have  here  been  so 
sternly  criticised,  did  not  represent  the 
preparatory  schools  of  the  country  at 
large  ;  but  only  twelve  of  the  most  popu- 


46  The  University  Library 

lar  schools  and  academies  in  Boston  and 
the  vicinity.  They  were  the  Public  Latin 
Schools  of  Boston,  Cambridge,  and  Wor- 
cester, Andover  Phillips  Academy,  Exeter 
Phillips  Academy,  Adams  Academy  of 
Quincy,  and  six  well-known  private  pre- 
paratory schools.  The  western  boys  were 
not  given  a  chance  to  appear  in  this  roll 
of  honor. 

The  headmasters  of  seven  of  these  pre- 
paratory schools  print  replies  to  the  Com- 
mittee's report  in  the  April  issue  of  the 
Harvard  Graduates  Magazine,  and  the 
papers  make  interesting  reading.  The 
main  facts  alleged  by  the  Committee  on 
English  they  do  not  deny,  nor  seek  to 
justify ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  deplore 
them,  and  undertake  to  lay  a  portion  of 
the  responsibility  on  the  College  itself 
whose  instructions  and  customs  they  have 
sought  to  follow.  The  first  reply  begins 
thus  :  "  The  unsatisfactory  results  of  the 
"training  in  preparatory  schools  is  too 


and  University  Curriculum         47 

"  well  known  to  admit  contradiction.  To 
"  make  an  accurate  diagnosis  of  the 
"  trouble,  to  locate  it,  and  then  to  treat 
"  it,  is  our  first  duty/* 

There  is  time  to  indicate  only  a  few 
points  made  by  the  headmasters.  They 
say  the  quality  of  training  in  the  common 
schools  has  deteriorated ;  and  "  the  in- 
"  creasing  immaturity  of  boys  of  ten  years 
"of  age  —  an  increase  very  perceptible 
"during  the  last  twenty  years — is  one  of 
"the  chief  obstacles  with  which  teachers 
"  of  preparatory  schools  have  to  contend. 
"  Pupils  come  to  the  preparatory  schools 
"  unwisely  and  unequally  trained,  and  at 
"  such  an  age  that  only  by  unremitting 
"  pressure,  with  an  eye  ever  on  the  College 
"  examination,  at  eighteen  or  nineteen 
"  years  of  age,  they  drop  over  the  College 
"threshold,  exhausted,  without  reserve 
"  power,  not  trained  to  think  or  to  work, 
"  crammed,  and  having  missed  the  great 
"  end  of  school  life."  One  of  the  princi- 


48  The  University  Library 

pals  says  that  "  the  fault  does  not  lie  in 
"the  preparatory  schools,  but  in  the  Col- 
"lege  itself;  for  the  schools  are  doing 
"  what  the  College  itself  was  doing  in  the 
"  Freshman  and  Sophomore  years  fifty 
"years  ago,  and  the  College  has  not 
"changed  its  requisitions  for  admission." 
Entrance  examinations  as  now  con- 
ducted, some  of  them  say,  are  a  menace 
to  the  thorough  preparatory  training  a 
boy  should  receive.  Education  for  its 
own  sake  is  lost  sight  of  in  order  to  attain 
another  end, — that  of  passing  the  College 
examination,  which  one  master  character- 
izes as  abounding  in  puzzles  and  conun- 
drums that  may  test  what  the  Creator  has 
done  for  the  boy,  but  not  what  the  boy 
himself  and  his  teachers  have  done  for 
him.  Who  has  a  better  knowledge  of  a 
boy's  fitness  for  college  than  his  instruc- 
tors? They  recommend  that  the  conven- 
tional entrance  examination  be  abolished, 
and  that  students  be  admitted  on  proba- 


and  University  Curriculum         49 

tion  by  certificate  from  the  headmaster. 
Candidates  are  frequently  admitted  by 
examination  who  could  not  have  had  a 
certificate  from  the  principal.  The  master 
of  the  Cambridge  Latin  School  said  that 
recently  Harvard  College  would  have  lost 
several  excellent  foot-ball  players  if  can- 
didates from  his  school  were  admitted  by 
his  certificate  alone. 

It  will  be  seen   from  this  rapid  survey 

•t — ~ 

that  there  is  a  confessed  and  radical  de- 
fect running  through  the  entire  system  of 
modern  education  —  the  public  schools. 
the  private  schools,  the  preparatory 
schools,  the  colleges  and  universities. 
Each  grade,  while  admitting  the  fact,  has 
a  disposition  to  assign  the  responsibility 

for    the     defect    to    those,     pf    a     higher    nr 

lower  rank  than  its  own,  when  probably 
all  are  equally  responsible. 

I  am  happy,  in  concluding  this  address, 
to  return  to  the  more  cheerful  strain  with 
which  I  set  out. 


50  The  University  Library 

To  those  of  us  who  graduated  thirty, 
forty,  or  more  years  ago,  books,  outside 
of  the  text-books  used,  had  no  part  in  our 
education.  They  were  never  quoted, 
recommended,  nor  mentioned  by  the  in- 
structors in  the  class-room.  As  I  remem- 
ber it,  Yale  College  Library  might  as  well 
have  been  in  Weathersfield  or  Bridgeport 
as  in  New  Haven,  so  far  as  the  students 
in  those  days  were  concerned.  The  col- 
lege societies,  however,  supported  and 
managed  wholly  by  the  undergraduates, 
had  good  libraries,  and  here  was  where 
the  students,  and  the  professors  besides, 
found  their  general  reading.  I  was  fortu- 
nate in  being  connected  with  one  of  those 
libraries,  and  there  I  began  the  study  of 
bibliography ;  but  never  had  the  slightest 
assistance  from  any  member  of  the 
faculty.  There  were  then  no  elementary 
books  on  the  subject,  and  hence  by  grop- 
ing alone  through  the  book  shelves,  I 
picked  up  some  knowledge  of  books  and 


and  University  Curriculum         51 

acquired  a  taste  which  I  have  not  4been 
able  to  throw  off  to  this  day.  How  much 
easier  could  I  have  made  the  journey,  if 
I  had  found  blazed  trees  along  the  way, 
and  a  guide  who  had  traveled  the  path 
before  me. 

During  the  past  twenty  years  there  has 
been  a  great  advance  in  the  study  of 
bibliography  in  the  leading  universities. 
Among  these  may  be  especially  mentioned 
Johns  Hopkins,  Yale,  Harvard,  Cornell, 
and  Michigan.  Good  work  is  also  being 
done  in  other  institutions.  None  of  the 
universities  named  have  as  yet  quite 
come  up  to  the  high  standard  of  having 
a  professor  of  bibliography ;  but  they  are 
moving  in  that  direction.  In  several  uni- 
versities the  librarians  give  lectures  on 
bibliography,  and  instruction  to  classes  in 
the  use  of  books.  The  development  al- 
ready reached  is  seen  in  the  rapid  increase 
of  these  libraries  in  the  accession  of  the 
latest  and  best  works  on  all  the  subjects 


52  The  University  Library 

taught  in  the  university ;  by  the  profes- 
sors citing  these  books,  calling  attention 
to  them,  taking  them  into  the  class-rooms, 
and  by  this  method  encouraging  the  stu- 
dents to  make  for  themselves  an  indepen- 
dent and  original  investigation  of  any 
subject.  As  the  work  has  been  going  on, 
money  has  been  liberally  contributed  by 
the  friends  of  the  institutions  for  erecting 
suitable  library  buildings,  procuring  the 
necessary  books,  and  conducting  Univer- 
sity Extension  lectures. 

Nothing  more  readily  appeals  to  the 
popular  sympathy  than  work  of  this  kind, 
or  forms  a  firmer  bond  of  fraternity  be- 
tween the  university  and  the  community 
at  large.  The  great  universities  which 
keep  their  hands  on  the  popular  pulse, 
are  those  which  receive  the  great  endow- 
ments from  private  munificence.  On 
some  special  subjects  of  universal  interest 
no  libraries  in  the  land  have  such  com- 
plete collections  of  recent  books  as  some 


and  University  Curriculum         53 

of  the  university  libraries.  Writers,  who 
would  have  access  to  the  most  abundant 
materials,  must  visit  these  libraries.  By 
what  other  means  can  a  great  university 
exert  a  more  beneficent  influence  and  re- 
tain the  affection  and  sympathy  of  the 
public  and  of  its  own  graduates  ? 

The  popularity  of  a  university  once  de- 
pended wholly  upon  the  professional  repu- 
tation of  its  instructors.  Now  the  leading 
questions  relate  to  the  size,  character  and 
value  of  its  library.  The  presence  of  a 
large  body  of  post-graduate  students  is  an 
inspiring  feature  of  university  life,  and  to 
the  public  a  guaranty  of  the  high  scholar- 
ship and  superior  educational  advantages 
of  the  institution.  These  students  cannot 
be  secured  and  retained  unless  they  have 
access  to  a  large  and  well-furnished  library. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  features  of 
modern  beneficence  is,  that  so  much  of  it 
has  been  devoted  to  the  endowment  and 
support  of  libraries ;  and  yet  the  univer- 


54  The  University  Library 

sity  libraries  of  the  West  have  not  as  yet 
had  their  due  share.  The  Northwestern 
University  Library,  through  the  generos- 
ity of  the  venerable  Vice-President  of  the 
Board  of  Overseers,  has  received  a  library 
fund  which  in  the  near  future,  it  is 
hoped,  will  yield  considerable  income ;  and 
he  has  also  given  $50,000  towards  the  con- 
struction of  the  Orrington  Lunt  Library 
Building  to  cost  double  that  sum  ;  but  still 
the  library  wants  are  not  supplied.  There 
should  be  a  further  and  large  endowment 
for  the  purchase  of  books  of  history,  liter- 
ature, natural  science,  political  and  social 
science,  the  arts,  and  of  other  departments, 
which  will  enable  the  professors  and  stu- 
dents of  the  University  to  keep  abreast  of 
the  latest  development  of  literary  and 
scientific  progress,  and  will  attract  schol- 
ars and  literary  men  to  visit,  and  many 
to  reside  near,  the  University.  The  larger 
the  endowment  the  better.  If  I  should 
name  the  sum  I  thought  was  necessary,  it 


and  University  Curriculum         55 

would  probably  be  thought  extravagant; 
but  it  would  not  be  larger  than  the  friends 
of  the  University  can  easily  bestow.  Let 
us  hope  that  the  completion  of  the  new 
library  building  will  be  the  beginning  of  a 
larger  development  of  the  resources  and 
usefulness  of  the  Northwestern  University 
Library. 


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